The public relations of the country’s Legal Medicine Organization has announced that during the past year (1393), 8,891 people were killed in work-related accidents, and the Director General of the Ministry of Labor’s Inspection has reported 1,050 deaths from work-related accidents during the same period. Every year, such contradictions in the statistics of work-related fatalities are seen abundantly, while experts also warn about the increase in accidents in the underground job market.

Nader Ghazipour, representative of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and member of the Workers’ Faction, talks about the number of worker deaths in the country during a conversation with the peace line: “In total, 14% of the country’s fatalities are made up of workers, and of this number, 50% are related to deaths of construction workers.”

The high statistics of accidents in construction units and the share of construction workers in the number of deaths caused by these accidents is the only issue that all authorities have a consensus on. However, until a few years ago, no insurance coverage was considered to protect workers in the construction industry and even after the approval of the new law regarding insurance for construction workers, there are still many discussions and debates about this issue. In fact, the implementation of this plan has been halted several times.

Judge Pour, in response to the question about why the Social Security Organization has raised the issue of allocation for insurance of construction workers and has not announced it since the beginning of this year, said: “In the plan that we approved in the eighth parliament, based on the proposal of Mr. Mojtaba, we did not have the issue of allocation. However, since the government owes a large amount – more than one hundred trillion tomans – to the Social Security Organization, the organization has allocated this deficit. In fact, the government has taken the workers’ money during the war and has not returned it! Later, investigations showed that the statistics announced by Mr. Saeed Mortazavi about the insurance of 800,000 construction workers were incorrect; it showed only 150,000 people and I do not think they have filled the number of 800,000 people until today.”

This representative of the parliament from the Urmia constituency, in response to the question of what actions the parliamentarians have taken so far, said: “Every day in the parliament, we would allocate a new task for the Social Security Organization and spend money on it, but we never thought about their income. However, recently we came up with a plan, which I am also the main designer of. Our intention is for the government to agree to pay the debts of the Social Security Organization. In all the main and sub-committees, the government opposed this plan, but the members of the committees voted in favor of this humble proposal. God willing, if it is finalized this week, I will also gather 57 signatures to have this plan reviewed out of turn. After all, the government has used the workers’ money in the past, but now they are not paying it back. Wouldn’t it be better for them to return the workers’ money instead of spending it on unnecessary expenses and

It is said that the government’s debt to the Social Security Organization is always increasing because it takes a portion of its payment; to provide various insurances, the Social Security Organization deducts 7% of workers’ salaries, 20% is paid by the employer, and 3% is contributed by the government, making a total of 30% paid to the Social Security Organization for workers’ insurance.

He emphasized that the members of parliament are following up on important incidents caused by work: “As the labor faction, we are following up on important labor issues and incidents; including the explosion at the Isfahan Iron Smelting Plant which resulted in the death of several dear workers. We followed up on their treatment and sending them abroad. We have also previously investigated the issue of mines and confronted the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for not providing sufficient training to workers, as well as the Ministry of Industry and Mines for sending workers to work up to two to three hundred meters underground without proper training, and we took them to court.”

This representative of the tenth parliament, in regards to the harmony between the government and employers, added: “The Rouhani administration is the employers’ government. Mr. Rouhani has surrounded himself with all the old generals; those who only think about their own interests!”

At the end, with reference to clause 33 of the Sixth Development Plan, which, if approved, will reduce the minimum wage of workers by up to 25%, he said in a peaceful tone: “We have created a severe class conflict. The Law of Coordination of Payments states that the minimum and maximum wages should be seven times apart. That means if you receive 7 million, I should receive at least 1 million and not less than that. Now, in the Sixth Development Plan, they have lowered the base wage. Is this fair? Why should the weak people of society be oppressed? We believe in tripartism: government-authority, employer as capital, and worker as human force… In any case, we stand against its approval with all our might, we will move heaven and earth to defend the rights of workers!”